Third baseman Travis Shaw slugged the first two home runs of his major league career and had four RBIs as the Boston Red Sox overcame another shaky start from Joe Kelly in an 11-7 win over the Tampa...

Manchester's school year will be 5 days shorter; February, April vacations remain

MANCHESTER - The Board of School Committee has come to an agreement with the city teachers union that will shorten the school year starting in the fall from 180 to 175 days.

The agreement with the Manchester Education Association means that two vacations, in February and April will remain in place.

Should the two parties not have reached an agreement, the board had voted to have one spring vacation in March.

The new calendar uses hours, rather than days, to meet state requirements for minimum instruction time. To accomplish this, the new calendar makes slight adjustments to the start and stop times of the school day.

Demonstration staged

A citizen journalist staged a demonstration at City Hall on Monday over allegations he was told he was not authorized to videotape inside the buildings.

Dave Ridley, who produces videos for a blog called the Ridley Report, said he was told by the security guard at the building four months ago that he needed authorization to record inside City Hall. He said Mayor Ted Gatsas told him he needed to get permission from the city clerk.

Ridley said he wanted to get reaction from the aldermen ahead of a meeting.

Ridley, who advocates for Libertarian issues, was joined on Monday by members of the group Cop Block, who have engaged in several disputes with Manchester police concerning restrictions on videotaping and recording.

The group held signs in front of City Hall before the school board meeting, and several people went inside to tape the proceedings.

They weren't interfered with as they did so.

Mayor Ted Gatsas said he doesn't recall telling Ridley that he needed special permission to tape inside the building.